50 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-6-18”

  1. Good Morning all. Aj is up early this morning.
    Taxes are finally done, at least my part. I worked hard, got the information in the forms, then scanned the forms, then created an email to send all of the information to my cpa. Only to find out that my email was not going anywhere. All is well this evening and everything has been sent.

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  2. So? Hit the sack Jo, and rest well.
    Good morning everyone else, but Tychicus.
    Hi Tychicus. We don’t often see you on this thread..

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  3. I got up at 5 am to get everything done at home and make it to the Pensacola Association of Realtors for an 8 am class that I MUST take. Just as I was stopped at a light and could see the building I got a message on my phone that class was canceled. 😦

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  5. The photo: that was from last week’s hike in the state park, when I first told them about my book. I walked in the park for about three hours that day. If I recall correctly, it was still February, but it got up to about 60 degrees under a bright blue sky–absolutely perfect for a walk. (We’d been saturated by heavy rainfalls, but it was our third dry day, so I didn’t have too many muddy spots, though I did have a few.)

    And it proved to be absolutely exquisite as a day for finding birds. Being late winter, the trees are leafless and birds are easy to see. Being a lovely day nearing spring (I think we will get another early spring, but we’ll see), the birds are thinking nesting season. That means the males are getting feisty and chasing each other, the couples are pairing up, and the males are finding the most exposed perch they can find and singing their hearts out–and calling attention to themselves in the process, especially while there are no leaves to hide them.

    That is how I saw this handsome red-tailed hawk. I don’t really know if it was a male or a female; for all I know, it might have been a female communicating with her mate elsewhere on the territory, or a female who lost last year’s mate advertising that she and the territory are available to a new mate. But there is probably a better than even chance it’s a male. At any rate, I heard screaming that I knew was a hawk, and likely a red-tailed hawk. (I assume that other hawks also have their own calls, and how similar they are to the redtail’s, I don’t know.) I looked around until I found the hawk, took a few shots, and then walked to where I had a better (less obstructed) view. I did, of course, use a zoom; I wasn’t as close as this looks. But hawks have excellent eyesight; I have no question it knew I was there, and I had a clear view. But in spring, passion overrides caution.

    This may well be the best view I’ve ever gotten of a red-tailed hawk. No, I take that back. In Nashville I was once hiking a nearby nature trail in a wooded area within the city, and a red-tailed hawk came in to land at nearly eye level just a few yards from us. I had a camera without a zoom lens, and I still got it this large in the frame or larger, it was that close. (I couldn’t get as much detail with that camera, though.) I guessed that the bird had been hand-reared and thus wasn’t afraid of people. But another couple of walkers waited behind us while I took a few shots, because I figured I would never again be that close to a wild hawk, or at least that close to one sitting still and not spooked by my presence. At any rate, this is the best photo opportunity (right sighting, right background, right camera) I have ever had of this regal bird, and I’m sharing it with you.

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  6. Kim. I know the feeling. Once, I had a group of five people I was leading to a meeting in Melbourne, Fl. We went to Washington National to fly out. Just a little after noon. On te way, it started snowing. While we were waiting for the plane, the flights were cancelled.
    I had to call the people in Melbourne.
    I told all of my people to go home. I went back to work because I had some things to do.
    But it was irritating.
    On the one hand, I would like to be in Florida during a snowstorm in Washington.
    On the other hand, I’m glad I was at home during a snowstorm in case I was needed.

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  7. Ouch, Kim. That’s just painful after getting up at 5 a.m. (shudder).

    I slept for 10 hours last night, guess I needed it after the first day back at work while I still have the tail end of this virus. I was up once, at around 2 a.m., to escort Cowboy out to the backyard, but it didn’t take him long and we both scurried back inside and back into bed. It was cold out there.

    Looks like we’ll get a bit more rain from Saturday through Monday, though it will be light rain and showers. Still, anything to dampen the earth out our way is good. My wildflower seeds will like it.

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  8. I just heard a man on FoxNews explain time before the Big Bang.
    There was no need for a creator, just a Big Bang. There was no time before time.
    No nothing.
    That explains it perfectly.

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  11. So yesterday, husband got to talk with the sheriff. Seems somebody did not like that the sixteen year old rides his bike to town and home again. Probably over the snowy conditions this weekend. Funny part about it, husband took him to town with him for coffee and brought him home again because son wanted his bike so he could stay and play video games with his friend after work. Husband’s truck is broken, he usually throws the bike in the back of the truck. But he wanted to ride. I had suggested he call his boss and ask for a ride, but he wanted to stay longer than his boss wanted. So he rode. I told him if we got spoken to again over it, he would have to give up the bike which would mean no more summer work unless he walked the five miles each way. Part of the call was that he was weaving on the road. Keep in mind he probably sees two cars a day on the road.

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  12. By the way, the sheriff said everything is fine. He has dealt with son before. Even when husband told the sheriff that somebody, feeling sorry for the lad, had offered him an old clunker to get to and from, but we are not letting him get a license until he is eighteen due to his challenges. Anyway, it reminded me of the Joshua Tree family. Concerned citizens caring but maybe not understanding the situation.

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  13. Mumsee, when I had the foster kids, the older but smaller child (who looked scrawny and underfed) through a fit in a public parking lot once when I was putting her in the car, including yelling “You scratched me!” I was afraid I might get a call or visit from DCFS, but nothing materialized. It just really is not always what it looks like to a casual observer.

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  18. I can see some elementary children having the phone for emergencies, but not a smart phone.

    And what’s the problem with getting up at 5AM? I do it every day.

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  23. Getting up at five gives you time to run upstairs and put some time on the treadmill and bowflex before heading out to do the chores before any of the children are up.

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  24. This month with twenty five days available for school, six of those are no school days and four are early release with several of the others reserved for special events. Apparently, March is not a very academic month.

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  26. The new header is, of course, the same hawk, only there it is screaming. I still had some trees and brush between us when I took this one, but I thought it pretty cool to get a hawk vocalizing–it looks as “wild” as it sounds.

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  29. Sunny, tad bit windy and warmer today…and the sky is deep blue 😊
    I don’t get it…what is wrong with a 16 year old riding his bike to and from town? And he was “weaving”? One must keep their eyes open when passing a cyclist….there are an over abundant number of cyclists in our area and you must drive your car 6 ft away from said cyclist…I slow down and keep my eye on them as I drive by, hoping their tire does not hit a rock or something that might cause them to come over my way!

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  31. Cheryl, how big is that hawk? it looks big but it’s hard to tell from the picture. I saw a hawk (or what certainly looked like one) perched high in our tree yesterday, but I don’t think it was more than a foot long. We have turkey buzzards around here sometimes and they are bigger than the hawk I saw. We keep a close watch on the larger carnivorous birds because of Samster. He’s feisty and would give a good fight, but I don’t want him injured.

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  32. Nancy Jill, that is kind of how I look at it. And I have warned them all that they are responsible to follow the rules of the road for autos when on a bike and to respect that drivers have a different perspective from riders.

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  33. Six am is for weekdays and seven is for sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday. Six is almost when it begins to get light here, pretty much year round. I can open one eye to see if it is beginning to get light and time to get up. I never use an alarm clock.

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  38. It is interesting to me how inter-dependent Nightingale and I are. Neither one of us could make it alone financially, for one thing. And we each help the other out in our various ways. My being here to watch The Boy and The Puppy allows her to not have to worry about childcare (and its great expense), or getting a babysitter if she wants to go to a friend’s house or on a date. (She tries not to take advantage of me in that, though.)

    Nightingale has been doing, and paying for, the grocery shopping. One day, knowing she was planning on going out for groceries, I took $100 I had on hand and clipped it to her list.

    She came to me and said that she would use it that one time, but that I do not have to pay her for groceries. I was so touched by that.

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  39. Had my haircut appointment with Sue this morning. When I told her about Hubby’s death, she was shocked, and then started to cry. We hugged a couple times. As she cut my hair, I filled her in on the details. I’m glad I finally told her. I also told her how much he had appreciated her, and cared about her and her family.

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  40. A red-tailed hawk is about 20″ long–our largest hawk. Whether it’s the largest nationally, I don’t know, but it’s a big bird. Female raptors tend to be larger than males, but I don’t know which this was. There was a nest in a tree in the area the hawk was patrolling and calling, but whether it was this hawk’s nest, a nest from last year, or another bird, I don’t know.

    I read a day or two ago that kestrels are considered uncommon, and I thought that I should appreciate my blessing, then–they are common here. At some seasons of the year, it is not unusual to see three on the trip into town (10-12 minutes) and another three on the way home. They’re tiny, but if you get a good look at them, really beautiful. I can’t say whether I see more kestrels or red-tails–probably more red-tails. We see a lot of both. But turkey vulture is the most common raptor we see.

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  41. Getting up at 5AM gives time for Bible reading and prayer along with the other morning activities before leaving for work at 6:30-ish.

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  42. I have trouble going to sleep. I read a lot and may think about the characters or plot of the book, all sorts of things. So last night I tried something. I got out a hymnal before I went to bed and sang through a hymn. Then as I was falling asleep those sweet words and music kept flowing through my head. I had the best night’s sleep.

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  43. Since I don’t leave for work until much later than 6:30 a.m., I have the luxury of not having to get up at 5. 🙂 Of course, I’m seldom home before 7 p.m.

    Some (very real world) mom humor

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  45. Let’s see… went to bed at 10 pm, got up at 2 pm because I couldn’t sleep, went to bed at 3:30 am, got up at 7 am, went to bed at 3 pm, got up at 6 pm…
    It’s my second day home sick from work. Yesterday I went to the doctor because my husband thought my cough sounded so bad, but the doctor said my chest was clear, the new symptoms (cough and sore throat) were viral, and the antibiotic I was already on from last week for the headache/congestion that I had had for two weeks should keep me from getting any bacterial respiratory infection. Which is about what I expected, but at least I know there’s nothing else I can do except rest and wait for it to be over.
    So I sat around most of the day, when I wasn’t sleeping, reading Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara. I had seen the movie a few years ago, but of course this is so much more detailed. I realize how little I really know about the Civil War.
    And this is more than I’ve said to anyone all day, because I can barely talk above a whisper, not helpful with my husband who has lost some of his hearing (he has a hearing aid but doesn’t always wear it at home).

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